EA is a student at USC majoring in Creative Writing. She is also a co-worker at the United University Church [UUC] working at the front desk. The story that she told me comes from her childhood.

Transcribed from Audio Recording:

..I’ve definitely heard the whole bloody mary when i was fourth grade maybe um they would always say you have to turn on the water and go in the bathroom turn on the eater and then like in front of the mirror repeat bloody mary bloody mary like three times and then she is supposed to appear…

So this was in 4th grade and the other kids told you…

Yeah, so I went to a daycare thing after school. That;s where i learned it.

Oh not at…

Not at actual school, at the daycare thing. but yeah. And I tried it. I was yeah right and I tried it. I was like…and then, then i heard that you need like watermelon seeds or something like that and that the reason you didn’t see her is because…I don’t know if it was watermelon seeds and you had to lit a candle or something and then turn on the water and then repeat it three times, I was like I ain’t got time for all this.

You didn’t try it again?

No, not after that. She didn’t come out. She didn’t want to see me/

You weren’t scared?

Um..I don’t know. ‘Cause I’m not really.. I guess I am superstitious if I believe that whole mouth thing I’m superstitious. Um I don’t know I don’t really believe in like..I don’t think we’re the only human beings or beings in the entire universe. I don’t know i give the benefit of a doubt. There’s probably aliens not the green headed things but there is something else alive but I don’t really believe in like, “Oh there’s a UFO” or like why would they let themselves be seen or like things like I don’t know you go under a ladder or open an umbrella inside the house. Like I don’t really believe in those kinds of things. But I guess what my grandma tells me…changes it. But i guess…

You grew up in the culture, so you believe it more.

Uhu.

Bloody Mary is a prominent figure in urban legends and the variety of tales told about her are numerous. However, the inclusion of seeds is something I had not heard before. i found it interesting and remembering a recent discussion in class, took it to mean that the watermelon seeds represent semen and the beginning of a new biological cycle for a girl into womanhood. Or perhaps they represent the ovule that are released on the onset of puberty, as Bloody Mary appears to represent.